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High Performing Teams& Belbin Team Roles

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High Performance Teams & Team Roles

The formation of effective teams is more by good fortune than good judgment… it doesn’t have to be that way!

– Rapid, high quality team performance is not an accident. It requires discipline & effective interaction skills:

• Balanced, diverse team

• Effective process

• Relevant experience

– Team Role reports – a scientifically proven, rapid way to predict team effectiveness:

• Design effective teams

• Diagnose and improve performance of existing teams

2©2013 3Circle Partners LLC. Portions of this material are © Belbin & Associates. Used here with permission. All Rights Reserved.

Belbin Team Roles

• Dr. Meredith Belbin from Cambridge University discovered over 20 years of research into team effectiveness:– The skill or individual excellence of the team members was

not a predictor of a team’s results.

– It was the way that the individual members behaved that contributed to or detracted from the team’s effectiveness.

– He identified nine predictable behavior patterns or “team roles”.

• He demonstrated that with a careful balance of technical skills and the optimal behavior patterns, we can select and develop teams with a predictably higher degree of success.


Predicting Team Performance

Predicted Order of

Finish

Actual Order of Finish

1 1

2 3

3 2

4 4

5 5

A typical example of Belbin’s ability to predict the order of finish of teams in the Henley Management Simulations.

Predicted

Actual

5

5

4

4

3

3

2 1

2

1

X

X

X

X

X

The red Xs on the graph represent the different teams participating in the simulation.

Red Xs on the diagonal line represent where Belbin's predictions and the team's performance matched exactly.


Team Roles

What is a Team Role?

• A tendency to behave, contribute, and interrelate with others in a particular way when working in a team

(vs. A Functional Role which refers to the job demands that a person has been engaged to meet by supplying the requisite technical skills and operational knowledge)

• Nine Roles Identified

• The team roles for fall into three categories for each person: • Natural or Preferred roles

• Manageable roles they can assume

• Least Preferred roles

• As individuals differ greatly in personality & behavior, so too will their team role compositions vary.


Factors Determining Individual Behavior in a Team

Set of Observable Behaviors

4.Environment

&Constraints

3.Current Values

& Motivations

2.Mental Abilities

1. Personality

6.Role

Learning

5.Experience


The Complexity of Team Interaction

1 2 3 4 5 61 2 3 4 5 61 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 61 2 3 4 5 61 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6

?

?

?

???

??


The Nine Team RolesA

ctio

n

SHShaper

IMPImplementer

CFCompleter Finisher

Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has drive to overcome obstacles.

Practical, reliable, efficient. Turns ideas into actions and organizes tasks.

Painstaking, conscientious, anxious.Finds errors. Polishes and perfects.

Peo

ple

TWTeam Worker

RIResource Investigator

COCoordinator

Co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic.Listens and averts friction.

Outgoing, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities, develops contacts

Mature, confident, identifies talent.Clarifies goals. Delegates effectively.

Allowable Weakness

Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied to fully communicate.

Lacks drive and ability to inspire others. Can be overly critical.

Contributes only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities.

Prone to provocation.Offends people's feelings.

Somewhat inflexible. Slowto respond to new possibilities.

Inclined to worry unduly.Reluctant to delegate.

Indecisive in crunch situationsAvoids confrontation.

Over-optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm expires.

Can be seen as manipulative. Offloads own share of the work.

Team Role Contribution

Th

inki

ng

PLPlant

MEMonitor Evaluator

SPSpecialist

Creative, imaginative, free-thinking. Generates ideas & solves hard problems.

Sober, strategic and discerning. Seesall options and judges accurately.

Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides rare knowledge and skills.


Team Roles Key Concepts - Individual

• Be aware of and manage your Allowable Weaknesses:– This is the price to be paid for being good in your preferred roles, e.g., a

strong Shaper is going to hurt some peoples feelings as they forge ahead

– Ensure that Allowable Weakness does not become “Disallowable”:• Lose a Plant’s attention during a meeting because they are dreaming up

a creative solution = OK

• Plant forgets to come to meeting because they are thinking about something else = NOT OK!

• Focus on what you do best:– Understand and excel in your natural, preferred roles & manage, rather

than struggle to be good at your least-preferred roles


Team Roles Key Concepts – Team

• Diversity is essential - All 9 roles will be needed at some point– Belbin demonstrated that diversity is a key predictor of actual results, it provides

a framework for constructive conflict – Doesn’t mean a team needs 9 people (5-6 is typically the ideal)– Each role should be represented within the team– Some roles will be more or less important at a given time or for certain tasks

facing the team. Who plays each role may also evolve & change over time.

• Beware of having too many of same role on team:– Too many Plants – all brainstorming, no action– Too many Monitor Evaluators – analysis paralysis– Too many Shapers – conflict

• Beware of labeling people:– Everyone has 3 to 6 roles that are preferred or manageable - they may need to

switch among these different roles based on the circumstances.


Individual Belbin Reports

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REPORTS

Reading Your Report

• The instructor will hand out everyone’s individual reports

• Key Questions to answer:– Is my report coherent?– Are my strongest roles consistent across observers and

myself?– Are the weaknesses seen by the observers ‘allowable’?– Are my top roles much more evident to the observers than

my weaker roles?


Analysis of your Team Role Composition

The overall rank order on the bottom line is the weighted addition of the

Self-Perception and the total of the Observers’ input.

What are my Top Roles ?

Example Report


Team Role Overview

Generally, you want to play to your preferred roles whenever possible. Pick the one best suited to the setting, set of tasks or other people you are with.

Sometimes a role outside your top 3 is the one best suited to the situation; think of this as “flexing or stretching”, especially if the role has a lower score.

Try to let others fill your weakest roles.

75 – 100 Clearly Projected

Top RoleRI CO

50 – 74 Strong Roles

TW PL

SP

0 – 49 Delegate to Others?SH ME

IMP CF

Example Report


Comparing Self and Observer Perceptions

Example Report

Coherence is the alignment of self-perception and observers’ perceptions of what you do and are good at.

It is important because it is correlated with being self-aware and effectively working with others (playing to your true strengths). Perfect alignment is impossible, but check for large gaps. Most people have some “disconnects” between the two.Differences of 40 or

more


Your Team Role Preferences

Example Report

In this example, the person feels they excel at three roles (RI, CO, TW), and have little aptitude for four roles (SH, ME, IMP, CF).

The system also checks for consistency in the self-perception data and “drops points” when any inconsistencies are found. This person had none, but scores of 5-15 are common.


Observed Team Role Strengths and Weaknesses

Example Report

Some weaknesses are to be expected, especially on the strongest roles. They may occur when you play the role to its proper extent. They are allowable as long as they do not become too extreme.

Having no weakness on a role, especially the stronger ones, may indicate a “hidden strength” (a role that could safely be played more if you choose to).

Are these weaknesses allowable

?

?


List of Observer Responses

Example Report

This is the complete list of words your observers could choose from to describe your behavior. Adjectives that are allowable weakness are italicized.

Maximum score = 2 x number

of observers


Team Role Feedback

Example Report

The data on this page is based on common themes for people like yourself. The report in your package was chosen based on what your top roles were and what your weakest role was.


Team Role Mapping

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Individual, Team, Organization

Awareness of Others

Team Awareness & Effectiveness

Organization Awareness &

Change

Self-Awareness

Self- Management

Self-Mastery

1. Individual Team Role Reports

3. Culture Analysis

PL

ME

SP

SH

CF

IMP

CO

TW

RI

x

x

x

x x x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x x

x

x

2. Team Maps & Pairs Analysis


Team Role Mapping Exercise

PL

ME

SP

SH

CF

IMP

CO

TW

RI

Mik

e

Susa

n Ti

m

Jo

hn

B

eth

R

aj

D

enis

e

For each Team Role:• Surplus?• Void?• Tendencies?• What adjustments

will be required?

Use the OVERALL ranking(see page 3 of your report)

Thinking

Action

People

x

x

x

x

x

x

x x x x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x x

x

x


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Documents

team effectiveness

team members

team role compositions

teams performance

complexity of team interaction

teams effectiveness

belbin associates

high quality team performance